What’s Going RIGHT In Public Education: Highlighting the Positive (And Where We Go From Here)

The state of public education in America is a topic that attracts the attention of a diverse crowd. The impact public schools have on children is felt by more than the students, parents, and educators directly involved in a child’s education. Education serves as the foundation for every industry in America’s economy. In the past, our nation’s educational strength powered the American economy to international greatness. Today, however, educational news is overwhelmingly negative. Dropout rates, bullying, racial division, gangs, ineffective teachers, insufficient funding, and restrictive standardized tests dominate news coverage.

The focus on what is wrong with our educational system is not completely misguided. Numerous studies and interviews with business leaders have indicated that the U.S. economy is being held back by its failure to educate a generation of students to their full potential. One recent study has even linked education with our nation’s security. However, the negative aspects of public education are only part of the story. Throughout the country, educational leaders have turned their unconventional ideas into action–and succeeded.

This month, I will post a series of posts focusing on achievements in public education. There’s enough out there about the negatives. Those stories won’t be hard to find with a quick Google search. Instead, I will focus on the unique ideas from unlikely leaders that are transforming public education.

Some topics that will be covered include:

how virtual or “online” schools are reducing costs and expanding accessibility to personalized, differentiated education,

the unconventional methods used by David Domenici and James Forman, Jr. in their See Forever Schools to make education for kids in juvenile detention useful and worthwhile, and

how Geoffrey Canada and Harlem Children’s Zone have successfully taken a holistic, cradle-to-college approach from a ninety-seven block area in New York to “promise neighborhoods” all throughout the country.

There will inevitably be some discussion of what’s going wrong in education today. Any discussion about education would be incomplete without it. However, each post will primarily focus on the positive, forward-looking, and assets-based thinking that has led to pockets of achievement in the unlikeliest places.

About Alex Hunt

Alex Hunt is a former Yale & Irene Rosenberg Graduate Fellow at the Center for Children, Law & Policy. Alex graduated from the University of Texas in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in government. Before entering law school, he taught middle school math at YES Prep Southwest in Houston with Teach For America. In 2010, he received New Leaders' EPIC Spotlight Teacher Award, a national award for teachers with outstanding student growth.
Alex graduated cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center in May 2013. During law school, Alex was Casenotes & Comments Editor for the Houston Journal of International Law, interned for both state and federal judges, and served as Vice President of the Health Law Organization (HLO). In addition, Alex has received the Irving J. Weiner Memorial Scholarship Award (for a year of outstanding work in the UH Law Center Legal Clinic), the Napoleon Beazley Defender Award (for outstanding work on behalf of children), the Ann Dinsmore Forman Memorial Child Advocacy Award, the Mont P. Hoyt Memorial Writing Award for an Outstanding Comment on a Topic in International Law, and he was a finalist for Texas Access to Justice's Law Student Pro Bono Award.
Alex is currently in private family law practice with the Hunt Law Firm, P.L.L.C. in Katy, Texas.

Contact Us

Center for Children, Law & Policy (CCLP)
Southwest Juvenile Defender Center (SWJDC)
Director Ellen Marrus, J.D., LL.M.,
George Butler Research Professor of Law
University of Houston Law CenterEMarrus@uh.edu